Chapter 11 - What Robert Mercer Hid
Evelyn closed the office blinds.
“Your father made me swear I would never tell you unless Grant became a threat to Lily.”
Daniel laughed once, without humor. “That time has passed.”
Evelyn sat down.
“Grant Cole was not just your college friend. Robert knew Grant’s mother.”
Daniel frowned.
“Everybody knew her. She worked for Dad.”
“For a reason.”
The truth arrived slowly and then all at once.
Twenty-nine years earlier, Robert Mercer had an affair with Grant’s mother. Grant was Robert’s biological son.
Daniel’s half brother.
Daniel stared at Evelyn as if she had started speaking another language.
“No.”
“Robert paid child support privately. He later gave Grant a job, then encouraged you to bring him into the company. He thought keeping Grant close would repair what he had done.”
Sarah whispered, “Instead, Grant thought the company was his birthright.”
Evelyn nodded. “Robert discovered Grant stealing and confronted him at the hunting lodge.”
Daniel looked at the photograph again.
“Did Grant kill him?”
“I can’t prove it. Robert called me an hour before he died. He said, ‘If anything happens, protect Daniel from the truth until you have evidence.’”
Daniel’s anger became something heavier than anger.
Every holiday Grant spent with the family. Every speech at Daniel’s wedding. Every time Robert called Grant “like a son.”
He had meant it literally.
Ruiz’s phone rang.
Her face tightened.
“What?” Daniel asked.
She ended the call. “We have a problem at the hotel.”
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“Lily?”
“The trooper outside her room was found unconscious in the stairwell.”
Daniel was already moving.
They reached the hotel twelve minutes later.
The room door hung open.
Sarah ran inside.
“Lily!”
The television still played the cartoon she had been watching.
Her stuffed rabbit lay on the carpet.
The bathroom was empty.
Daniel saw a folded piece of paper on the bed.
His hands shook as he opened it.
BROTHER,
BRING SARAH TO THE OLD HUNTING LODGE.
NO POLICE.
May you like
OR YOUR DAUGHTER LEARNS HOW OUR FATHER DIED.
Under the note was a lock of Lily’s light brown hair.
